3 Tips for Dealing with Bible Time Distractions

Imagine what the perfect Bible time looks like for you. Do you have a picture in your mind? Maybe you get a hot cup of coffee and have your perfect set of colored pens. Or maybe you just like to be outside with your Bible and journal. Perhaps your perfect time includes a porch swing and a cool breeze. Whatever it looks like, I am guessing it doesn’t always look like that in real life. 

It can be so easy to get distracted during our Bible time. There is an enemy who does NOT want you spending time in God’s Word and he does what he can to make sure you are distracted.  

If we want to get to know God better, we need to find ways to deal with the distractions and prioritize our time in God’s Word. Here are 3 tips to deal with those distractions.  

1. Evaluate the Distraction 

There are different types of distractions that could keep us from our Bible. One might be social media or TV. That distraction needs to be dealt with much more seriously than a curious child wondering what you are up to. There are two different responses there. There is also a difference in response between a bleeding child or a bored child. Again, we have two different responses. It is helpful to have a few categories for our distractions.  

If the distraction is a child who is old enough to spend time on their own while you read your Bible, maybe the response needs to be a simple, “give me 15 minutes because my time with God is important to me, and then we will do something together.”  

If the distraction is a child that needs immediate attention, then moving the Bible time to a different part of the day could work, or simply praying through the encounter with your kid. In that case, the day simply becomes an obedience to your calling as a parent instead of the seamless Bible time you anticipated.  

If the distraction is social media or TV, do whatever you can to root it out. Take it seriously. Put the phone in another room. Unplug the TV. Step outside and away from what is taking your attention. It is worth it to have that undivided time with God.  

2. Reframe the Expectations 

When looking at my perfect Bible time, I tend to want some sort of feeling to go with it. I want to feel God’s presence, or even just feel better as a result of my time in God’s Word. While that does happen sometimes, I don’t think it will always happen, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We can get these expectations into our head of what it should look like, and we miss out on the God moments that actually happen because we are expecting something else.  

Reframing our expectations helps us to seek God through His Word, but also understand that not every day will look and feel ideal. Some days we will have a truth nugget that hits us over the head, and some days we will be storing up truths about God for when we need them.  

Some days we will have 30 minutes uninterrupted, and others we will get a sleepy kid stumbling down the hall 5 minutes in.  

Some days we will want to shout from the rooftops what we have learned and some days we will be convicted by the Spirit and spend time in prayer afterwards.  

Neither of those days is better than the other, because our expectation is no longer based on an ideal scenario, but has shifted towards simply knowing God better. 

3. Let Go of the Checklist

Checklists can be so good. They can genuinely help us with our Bible time. However, sometimes, they can add to the distraction. You know that dated Bible reading plan that says you should have read this passage on March 3rd? It’s not helping, friend. The guilt of seeing the missed days can actually cause even more distractions and make you fall even further behind.  

However, when we let go of the checklist, we get the opportunity to see what God is doing in our lives through His Word right now. Maybe you were supposed to read that passage today and not last March. That’s a good thing! You are listening to the Spirit as you read. Let go of the checklist. Move into a relationship with God instead of being controlled by the checklist.
 

What’s Your Distraction? 

What most often distracts you from your Bible time? Is there an action step you need to take today to help you become more consistent in the time you spend with God?